Do You Remember?
by Damien J. Frost
Summary: “Do you remember the last time it snowed on Christmas?”


**Do You Remember?**

_by Damien J. Frost_

**Disclaimer:** _Sailor Moon,_ and all items associated with, are property of Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha, Tokyopop, Toei Animation, DiC Entertainment, et al. There is no profit being gained from the content of this story and it is to be used solely for private entertainment purposes. The plot is the intellectual property of the writer. No parts of this story are to be duplicated or posted elsewhere without the expressed permission of the author.

This story is rated "K+" or "PG" by the guidelines of the fansite on which it is posted.

* * *

"Do you remember the last time it snowed on Christmas?"

Rei, who had been setting the table, paused and looked over to Minako, who stood wrapped in a blanket, staring out the window.

"Not really," the former miko replied, shrugging her shoulders and returning to her chore. It was their turn to host Christmas dinner, and Rei was determined that it would turn out better than last time. Of course, if nothing broke or was lit on fire, it would be considered a success in her mind.

When Rei was finished, she looked up and was surprised to see the other woman had not moved. While she had grown slightly more serious through the years, she had never been one to lose herself in her thoughts, and her current mood was slightly unsettling. "Hey, are you all right?" she asked, moving to her blonde companion.

Her response was a shrug, weighed down by the large comforter laying across her shoulders.

Sighing, Rei wrapped her arms around the slightly taller woman from behind and rested her cheek on her back. "What's going on in there, Mina?"

She felt a hiccup, and then, slowly, sobs began to rack the body of the blonde. Rei, alarmed, and more than a little frightened, hung on as if her life depended on it.

When the crying slowed, Rei moved to stand in front of Minako, and cupped her red cheeks before leaning in a kissing her lightly. "If you want, we can do dinner another night. It wouldn't be the first time."

Minako nodded before burying her face into the smaller woman's shoulder.

* * *

"Do you remember this?" The blonde laughed, popping out of the closet with a Santa hat that had red and green streamers in place of the white ball on top.

Rei smiled softly. "Of course I do. Usagi was cutting out wrapping paper and accidentally snipped off the ball. She cried like her dog had died. If I remember correctly, we had a lot of fun with that little piece of cotton when we found it."

The blush that spread over Minako's cheek brought a bark of laughter from Rei. "Hentai!" she squealed, jumping onto the bed next to her partner. "Chibi-Usa and Hotaru were determined to fix it," she laughed, flicking one of the tassels, "but no one could find the ball," she turned to her partner. "I'll never figure out how it got into your shoe."

Rei coughed into her fist, trying to fight the blush that was now covering her cheeks.

"I kew it!" Mianko laughed pushing the raven-haired girl lightly. "You _are_ a hentai!"

Shrugging, the other woman smiled. "It didn't start out that way. I thought it would be funny to watch everyone looking for it, but after a while, I thought of some very good reasons not to let it turn up."

The mock glare her confession earned her a laugh and a kiss.

Rei smiled and wrapped her arms around the blonde, and the two sat in silence, enjoying the company they provided.

"Do you remember when Haruka got in that crash, when she was racing in Spain?"

Rei nodded slowly, not sure where this line of questioning was going. It was nearing midnight, and the last vestiges of Christmas Day were almost gone. The two women were curled under the comforter Minako had been dragging around earlier, sitting on their couch in front of a roaring fire, arms wrapped around each other.

Minako was still wearing her Santa hat.

"I remember thinking that we would walk into the hospital, and Michiru would be sitting there – not stoically, but… you know? She'd be concerned and a little worried, because, well, who wouldn't be? But I remember thinking that… that she'd be so assured that everything would be okay that she'd be… Setsuna-like? Calm and composed. It's just the way I picture her, you know?" she asked, turning to Rei for confirmation. For her part, the senshi of fire nodded slowly, still not sure where all of this was going.

"When we walked in, and saw Hotaru and Setsuna having to physically hold her back from running into the operation room… And how she just cried – I'll never forget the sound of her crying. The way she was just so broken… I remember, after everything was said and done, when Haruka was in the clear… I remember thinking 'I want a love like that,'" she said fiercely, nodding her head definitively.

Rei smiled softly. Now she knew where this was going.

"So I decided to take a chance. For the first time, I really took a chance with my heart." She chuckled lightly and shook her head in amusement. "Oh, the irony - the Senshi of Love, so afraid to be in love."

Rei squeezed her arms tightly around her love. "I'll always be grateful that you took that chance, because we both know I'm too stubborn to see what's good for me."

This drew the laugh Rei had been seeking, and she was rewarded with a kiss.

* * *

"Do you remember your parents?"

Rei froze mid-stride. She had been sneaking out of bed to use the bathroom, and she had thought that Minako was still asleep.

Her bright blue eyes, which stared out their bedroom window as she absently played with the Santa hat, laid that thought to rest.

"Sort of," she replied, returning to sit on the bed. "I think I remember my mother more than my father, but it just might be a little kid's image of her mother. Why?"

"I sometimes catch myself trying to remember what my mother smelled like, or what my dad's favorite food was. I know that if I didn't have pictures I wouldn't even remember what they looked like."

Rei watched the tears trail down her face and reached out to brush them away. "I remember when Grandpa died," she said, bringing those blue eyes to focus on her. "How much it hurt, and how much I just… I thought it was wrong. He was always invincible. I only remember a handful of times he was ill, and nothing was ever worse than a cold.

"Then, one morning, he just didn't wake up. Old as he was, he was in perfect health. Even his heart was strong. It just decided that it was done in this life," her voice broke slightly as a tear escaped her amethyst eyes. "But I remember thinking that if I truly wanted to honor him, I would be happy, no matter how much it hurt at the time.

"And after a few years of torturing myself, you gave me that happiness Mina. So when you're unhappy, it worries me. What's going on Mina?"

This brought a sad smile to her love's lips. "You've made me happy too, Rei. You know I love you." She reached her arms out like a little kid wanting to be picked up, and Rei obliged the silent question by crawling into her arms.

A little time passed before Minako answered Rei's question. "You know, the last time it snowed on Christmas was just before my parents died. I was stuck in London, doing a couple holiday fundraisers. I didn't want to leave, because I had tickets to a football match on Boxing Day and I was so excited. I remember thinking that it was just one Christmas, and I'd make it up to them next year.

"When I got home, just after New Year's my mother gushed to me about how I had missed a White Christmas and she was glad that I was home.

"I remember how sad she looked when she told me they had missed me for Christmas," a sob escaped at this admission, and it took several minutes and some soothing from Rei before she regained her control. "I never got the chance to make it up to them Rei, and now I feel like I'm forgetting them."

Rei smiled sadly as she ran her hand in a slow circle on the other woman's lower back. "You're not forgetting them, Mina. Just looking through photo albums, and talking about them, and taking a moment to remember them every now and then… doing these things, and living out lives is how we remember."

There was silence, broken only my the occasional hiccup from Minako, before the blonde turned and caught Rei's lips in a deep kiss.

When Rei's eyes opened, she was captured by a see of blue, and four wonderful words.

"I love you, Rei."

Another kiss was her answer, and they spent the next several hours lost in each other.

* * *

"Do you remember…"

Rei put a finger to the other woman's lips and pulled her back down into bed, deformed Santa hat and all.

"I remember, Mina."


End file.
